Every school in the country will be required to give staff mental health training under new laws proposed by Theresa May.

The prime minister has promised to tear up the 1983 Mental Health Act and introduce ‘sweeping’ reforms to the Equalities Act, to protect those with depression and anxiety from being discriminated against at work.

As part of mental health training in schools, children will be taught more about psychological well-being – especially in relation to online safety and cyber-bullying.

The current laws are seen as deeply flawed, the PM said, and are also often blamed for vulnerable people being unnecessarily detained in cells.

A recent report by the care Quality Commission said the Act contained ‘failings that may disempower patients, prevent people from exercising legal rights, and ultimately impede recovery or even amount to unlawful and unethical practice’.

Numbers of people detained under the 1983 Mental Health Act have increased by 43% over the last decade, with black people significantly more likely to be held in secure mental health wards.

Theresa May's promised mental health reforms

The prime minister has pledged to:

Hire 10,000 more staff working in NHS mental health services by 2020

Update health and safety regulations so that they take risks to mental health into account as much as they do physical health

Fund the Samaritans helpline through the next parliament, due to end in 2022

End charges for forms used by people in debt to prove their mental ill-health to creditors

Rip up the 1983 Mental Health Act and replace it with new laws under the Equalities Act to protect people with depression and anxiety from workplace discrimination

The current Mental Health Act is blamed for the unnecessary detention of vulnerable people (Picture: Liberty Antonia Sadler for Metro.co.uk)

Announcing the reforms, May said: ‘Today I am pledging to rip up the 1983 Act and introduce in its place a new law which finally confronts the discrimination and unnecessary detention that takes place too often.

‘We are going to roll out mental health support to every school in the country, ensure that mental health is taken far more seriously in the workplace, and raise standards of care with 10,000 more mental health professionals working in the NHS by 2020.

‘These reforms are a vital part of my plan to build a fairer society for all, not just the privileged few, and they demonstrate the positive difference that strong and stable leadership makes.’

She then added: ‘Jeremy Corbyn is too weak, and his policies are too nonsensical, to help those who rely on our NHS and mental health services.’

Theresa May has pledged to tear up the Mental Health Act 1983 (Picture: Getty Images)

However, many were sceptical that May would deliver on her promises – and whether they’d be sufficient to restore the mental health services cut under the current Government.

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And Janet Davies, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, added: ‘Meaningful improvement to mental health care is always welcome but they will need to work hard just to get back to the number of specialist staff working in this area in 2010.